Operation: Storywood
by MidnightWriter800
Summary: Two Captains. Two Worlds. An incident leaves Jack and Killian stranded in opposite realities. Gwen Cooper chases dragons in Cardiff with Captain Hook, while Emma and Jack battle aliens in Maine. What could possibly go wrong...?
1. Chapter 1

_Storybrooke, Maine, 2016_

'Emma, you have _got_ to see this,' had been David's only explanation when he'd called, in the early hours of the morning. He'd been kind of vague on the details 'You'll understand when you get here.' He'd said, a trifle bemused.

She'd headed to the place David had told her to meet up, Killian riding shotgun in the Bug, as Emma wondered to herself, irritably lamenting her lack of morning coffee, what was so important that he had to wake them both up just as the sun was rising.

'Dave seemed pretty shaken up,' Killian commented suddenly, as if reading her mood.

'Yeah,' Emma breathed an audible sigh. Something about this whole situation was putting her nerves on edge, making her jumpy despite her tiredness, which was odd, because she wasn't prone to sudden feelings of impending doom, but she _did_ have a razor-sharp sense of intuition, and that meant her gut was telling her something was off about the situation, then it was probably justified.

The bug pulled up to the place. It was a small, disused cabin on the fringes of town. Gold had once used it as a second home, and after that, her friend August had been interrogated there. It was a place she knew all too well, but immediately, the sense of something being off was heightened when she saw it.

David was standing close by, arms folded over his chest in a gesture of thinly-disguised concern 'It appeared about an hour ago,' he explained as Emma exited the bug and strode up the cabin, and intent frown creasing her face 'Gold said he sensed something weird in this place, we thought it might be a Dark One thing.'

She didn't reply, she just kept on walking, her expression growing more and more bewildered with each step. Killian shot her father-in-law and inquiring look, but he shrugged and the two began to shadow behind Emma.

Emma saw immediately the thing to which David had been referring. There was a bright, sickly purplish glow pulsating from the windows, interspersed with flickers of white, like an indoor storm, but there was no thunder, only an odd crackle and sizzle and spark of energy. What _was_ it? Since she'd become Saviour, Emma had gotten pretty good at sensing magic, but the vibe that seemed to pulsing off this thing in waves was completely different.

'Wait here for us,' Emma told David, cautiously.

'Uh-huh,' David began sternly.

'Whatever this thing is,' Emma began, her tone severe 'It's dangerous. Don't ask me how I know, I just do, okay? Now you need to stay here, in case anything goes wrong, and Storybrooke needs a backup sheriff.' She gave them both a disarming smile and touched Killian's arm 'Besides, I have my deputy by my side.'

David looked sullen, but began baking away slowly. He lingered on Killian with a knowing, _take care of my daughter_ look, and there was a nod of understanding, which Emma pretended not to notice.

'Let's go,' she said, turning to Killian, before trudging towards the cabin while he followed after.

They entered the cabin silently, closing the door behind them. It was pitch dark, save for the strange light source, which stood in the centre of the empty room, a pillar of white-hot, intense light, its washed-out edged fringed with a bright, pinkish-purple glow, the colour of fork lightning. It wavered, crackled and fizzled unstably, as if barely holding its shape.

Killian and Emma squinted reflexively as they looked into its bright light, straining their eyes. The flickering lights cast an eerie, pallid reflection on their faces.

'What is that?' Killian asked, his voice hushed with disbelief.

'I have no idea…' Emma replied, her own voice barely a whisper. She edged forward, surreptitiously, gazing into the light.

Concern mounted on Killian's face as she drew closer 'Emma, bare careful,' he said. She didn't respond. She was oddly transfixed by the lights of the strange anomaly. The air around it seem to pulsate with a strange pressure.

She edged out a hand, very slowly, the tips of her fingers brushing the edge of the anomaly. Tiny zigzags of pinkish static seemed to jump out from it and stick to her skin, almost magnetically. She winced at a tiny prick of pain, but then gasped as a sudden jolt rushed through her mind and body.

The sudden sensation was accompanied by a rush of images, which flooded through her mind in what felt like a fraction of a second, and yet each image was distinct and clear. Strange creatures. A modern cityscape she didn't recognise. A glossy black SUV, with a single word stencilled on the door: 'TORCHWOOD'.

Somehow, Emma managed to yank her hand free, and she felt herself stumble backwards, gasping in shock more than anything else. She almost doubled over, seized with a sudden dizziness, but Killian was there to catch her, deftly, before she hit the ground. Her body felt limp, but he managed to usher her to one of the cabin's chairs, carefully sidestepping the anomaly setting her down as softly as he could.

'Emma?' Killian asked, putting her face close to hers 'Are you alright?'

'I think it's a portal,' she said, her voice raspy 'But it's different somehow.'

'Focus on getting your strength back, Swan,' he told her, gently.

Killian turned back to the anomaly, perplexed. A portal, she'd said… he edged up to it and carefully, slowly, edged his hook towards it.

There was a strange resistance as he pushed hook experimentally through the layers of violet light on the outer edge, a strange sense that the otherworldly pressure vibrating from it had grown stronger.

Emma was suddenly lucid again, seize with a sudden panic, and she shot upright from her place in the chair 'Hook, wait!' she yelled, causing him to whip his head round.

Before either of them could say anything, there was a sudden inrush of wind as the anomaly imploded inwards, accompanied by a deafening, deep buzzing sound, like a Theremin on loudspeaker, as the air of the cabin vibrated electrically.

The glowing column of light seemed to swallow Killian whole as it collapsed into a blinding point of light like a star, then exploded outward violently in a flash that illuminated the entire room in white for a second, before dissipating into nothingness. There was a faint tingle of power in the air for a few seconds, and then nothing.

An eerie stillness settled over the room.

Then Emma saw him.

A man, curled into a ball in the centre of the room, exactly where the anomaly had been only moments before. He was hugging his knees to his chest, his body steaming faintly. He lifted his downturned face from his knees, and regarded Emma blearily. She gaped at him.

After a while, he grinned winningly at her 'Captain Jack Harkness,' he said suavely 'Now who might you be?'

'Emma Swan,' she returned 'Now, where the hell is my husband?'

 _Cardiff, Wales, 2009_.

Gwen Cooper was having 'one of those days'. She'd known it was going to be hectic when they'd gotten an alarm first thing in the morning. She hadn't even had time to check her e-mails before they were bundling into the SUV and off to god knew where to face god knew what.

The reading was…weird.

'It's not a standard rift flare-up,' she informed them, checking the SUV's internal displays. The offending anomaly was represented as a purple splotch on the map, rhythmically pouring out faint pinkish waves. 'Whatever it is, it's an energy signature we've never seen before.'

'I know, I sensed it.' Jack stated. He sounded on edge, wound tight.

Gwen didn't know what that meant, but something in his tone told her not to ask.

'It's coming from a packing factory, downtown,' Ianto informed him before she could.

'Got it.' Jack nodded, and slammed down on the accelerator.

Within minutes they were there, and I befuddled foreman was ushering them through the plastic curtain into a back room, where they immediately saw what they were looking for. It was a column of white incandescent light, fringed with deep violet, that crackled and wavered with a constant outpouring of energy.

'Jack, what is that?' Ianto was asking. Gwen just found herself staring at its flickering light.

Jack's eyes were wide, his voice a thrilled whisper 'It looks like a temporal cross-gate,' he said, edging forward to put his face inches from the anomaly 'Theoretically, you place two gates at two independent points in spacetime, and you could create a bridge between,' he held two fingers a few inches apart, then made a two-finger walking motion, to demonstrate.

Gwen quirked an eyebrow 'Could? Theoretically?'

'Yeah,' Jack nodded slowly, his brow furrowing intently 'Trouble was, there were terribly unstable. The machinery used to generate them exploded more often than not. Obsolete, my by time.' He exhaled thoughtfully 'But this one's holding…naturally.'

Before either of them could say anything to the effect of "Jack, wait!" Jack stuck a hand inside, as though testing the temperature for a bath.

He winced, as a jolt of energy coursed through his body, and a series of images played through his mind with impossible speed and clarity. A forest, reforming itself in a haze of purple mist into a small American town. A yellow Volkswagen trundling up that same town's main road. And a woman, blonde in a red leather jacket, holding a sword at one side.

Jack was thrown backwards out of the anomaly, as if spat out, staggering and swaying. Gwen and Ianto each instinctively shoulder an arm to steady him.

'Bloody hell, Jack!' Ianto scolded, frantic 'Don't ever do something that impulsive _ever again_.'

Jack managed a queasy smile 'Fat chance.'

It didn't take him long to support himself again, and by that time, he was already eyeing the cross-gate again 'I saw the other side,' Jack explained 'Something, some force, or entity or power, linked our time to another, creating natural cross-gates in the process,' he expression clouded with thought 'But… _why_?'

He turned to Ianto and Gwen 'I'm going through; whatever this is, whatever's causing it, it has to be deliberate, and that kind of meddling with time could destroy everything, especially if it interferes with the rift.'

'Jack—' Gwen started.

'Not buts,' he declared with a smile 'I'll be two minutes.'

He gave them one last dazzling grin and threw himself into the gate…and it collapsed inward with a rush of air, and a deafening buzz of energy, falling into a white point of light, which flared briefly, and then popped into non-existence.

'Ah,' said Ianto, crestfallen 'So much for two minutes…'

Gwen blinked. In non-existent the time since the gate had vanished, a man had appeared on the floor in its place. He was sprawled, moaning, eyes fluttering groggily. Gwen stopped over and examined him warily. He was wearing a leather jacket and tight black jeans, pretty normal clothes. Pinned to his lapel was sheriff's deputy badge, cut into a star shape. She squinted to make out the lettering 'Storybrooke Sherriff's Department,' she read aloud, completely nonplussed.

Strangest of all, there was a steel hook on the end of his arm, where his left hand _should've_ been.

His eyes opened and he blinked up at them in a daze 'What…? Where…?' he muttered.

'Who're you?' Gwen demanded, reflexively reaching for her sidearm.

The man heaved himself into a sitting position, a little indignant 'I'm Captain Killian Jones,' he announced 'Who the bloody hell are _you_?'

'We're Torchwood, mate,' Gwen told him curtly.

The man pulled a face 'Who…?'

Author's Note: Hey, folks! So typically, authorial notes like this will go at the beginning of chapters, but in this case, I decided to put it at the end, to let the first chapter speak for itself. So yeah, from that, you have the setup for our story: Jack and Killian switching places, which means switching locations, switching 'teams', and…well, lots of other, plot-related things! Characters from the Whoniverse may also pop up in this story, including a certain doctor *wink wink*. Anyway, hope you enjoy this first chapter. _Be sure to leave a review so I actually know that, too_. See you guys for the next one!


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note **:** So, the Storybrooke section ran really long in this part, so I'm making Cardiff its own chapter this time.. The first scene is also the second time I wrote it. I was originally writing it straight onto 's document manager, but I must've accidentally closed the tab, because I lost all my progress. Hopefully this second time is just as good., if not better.

 _Storybrooke, Maine, 2016_

"Captain Jack Harkness" was now sitting across from her in the interrogation room, spinning the most impossible tale Emma had ever heard in her entire life, which, given her life up to that point, was quite the feat. Never mind the fact he looked like an Abercrombie model on his way home from a World War II re-enactment.

He'd tried a couple of false stories, before sighing with resignation and opting to tell her the whole, unbelievable truth.

'Let me get this straight,' she said, after a lengthy pause 'You hunt _aliens_ …for a living? Flying saucer, death ray, "take to your leader" … _aliens_.'

'Sometimes,' Jack admitted with a nonchalant shrug 'Other times, it's helping the good aliens get home, or saving people stranded in the wrong time, or stopping an asteroid crashing into the Earth and causing another intinction event,' he laughed to himself 'Bit of a Jack off all trades.' He grimaced queasily '…That was a joke.'

Emma looked up and down. He quirked an eyebrow 'What? You don't believe me?'

'Oh, I believe you,' she said 'And I don't know if that means we're both crazy…'

'But?' Jack pressed.

 _Oh, damn, he is perceptive_ , Emma just felt there was something… _off_ about him. Not in his story, her every well-trained instinct was telling her that, at the very least, he _believed_ what he was telling her was the absolute truth, but something else, something deeper than instinct was telling her he was just _wrong_ somehow. That unnatural sense of wrongness seemed to hang about him like an aura.

'Well, Sherriff Swan,' said Jack with a winning smile 'I've told you my deal, what's yours? Call me crazy, but I think there's a lot more to you than a small-town sheriff.'

Emma frowned 'What are you, a pickup artist?'

Jack shrugged and pulled a guilty face 'I've dabbled.'

'Sorry,' she told him 'That's not how an interrogation works.'

In response, Jack scoffed 'Am I a prisoner?' he challenged, grinning.

Emma crossed her arms 'Until I can figure out whether you're a threat to my town and what you've done with my husband, yeah, you are.'

Jack threw his head back in exasperation 'I've told you, I don't know anything about your husband! Last I checked I was in _Cardiff_ in 2009, now I'm in _Maine_ and it's…'

'2016,' she supplied.

Jack whistled 'Damn, of all the crappy years to be stuck in…' he trailed off 'Look, either way, I'm no threat to you or your town, that I can promise you. I'm just trying to find a way back to my team.'

He looked her dead in the eye, and that extra, magical sense of awareness screamed his unnatural wrongness in the back of her head. It reminded her eerily of tremors and Saviour visions.

There was a long, unsettling pause.

Doing her best to put it aside for now, Emma crossed around the table to uncuff him.

'Ah, that's better!' Jack exclaimed, flexing his hands exaggeratedly.

'You're going to help me figure out what happened to my husband,' Emma explained, so there were no misunderstandings. 'You seem to know way more about this " _cross-gate"_ thing than I do, so I need your help.'

Jack looked vaguely impressed 'Only freeing me for information. You _are_ good.'

Emma smiled, mock-sweetly 'I do my best.'

'Alright, I'll help you,' Jack put in pointedly 'On one condition. _You_ have to tell me your story. Do we have a deal?'

'Deal,' Emma said, though the sigh in her voice was audible.

 _ **~Line Break~**_

So, she really _did_ tell him everything. Growing up in the system. Prison. The Curse. Henry turning up on her birthday. Cora, Greg and Tamara, Neverland, Witches, Dark Ones, The Underworld, the whole shebang. Strangely, despite the many unbelievable things that came up over the course of her telling, he never raised an objection, only nodded intently, occasionally putting in interested little 'mm's and 'hmm's as he listened, taking in the story.

'Well, Sherriff,' he said once she'd finished 'Sounds like you've had a hell of a life.'

'You have no idea.'

Jack leaned forward, grinning with fascinated excitement 'So, this husband of yours, he's…'

'Captain Hook,' she said, casually.

'And you're Snow White's daughter,' he repeated, as if still getting used to the idea.

'Yup,' Emma said, a slightly bashful look on her face. Hearing it said by an outsider like that reminded her what an odd existence hers was.

'And everyone in this town's a fairy tale character?'

'That's about the size of it,' Emma agreed with a shrug.

Before her could question her further, the door opened and David entered, followed by Henry and Snow. His face seemed oddly panicked. Henry was clutching something she didn't recognise.

'Emma, did you find anything about Hook?' David asked, unconsciously putting an arm on her shoulder.

Emma set her jaw, looking guilty 'No, sorry. He didn't know anything.'

David leaned closer into her, his manner softened 'Don't worry. We'll find him.' Then, he straightened up and looked past her at Jack 'What about him? Who is he?'

Emma turned and gestured at Jack, who waved blithely 'This is Jack. He's…complicated, but he's offered to help me find Hook, as a kind of consultant…' she wasn't sure how David would take a whole "aliens" thing. Better to let the expert handle that bombshell she decided.

Jack jerked his head in David's direction 'Who's the hunk?' he asked.

Emma blinked at him, totally bewildered 'That…would be my father.' She said, feeling her cheeks flame.

'Ah, Prince Charming,' Jack nodded, sounding far too delighted. Snow was wide-eyed with disbelief, Henry looked visibly mortified.

'He's married,' Snow spoke up, her voice a squeak.

Jack looked unfazed 'Don't worry, Princess,' he said with a soft laugh 'You can join if you like.'

'Okaaay,' Emma announced, more loudly than necessary in a desperate attempt to wrest the conversation off this trajectory 'Why don't we start by scoping out the house where that gate thing appeared?' she suggested.

'Wait, Mom,' Henry stepped forward. He'd been waiting for her opportunity to speak. It was then she realised what he was holding was a book 'Look at this. I…felt something, like when the quill first called out to me, so I checked out the Sorcerer's Mansion, and when I did, a new book had just _appeared_ there.'

Emma frowned, taking it curiously in her hands '"Assorted Fairy tales and folklore of the Time Lords…51st Century Edition… Foreword by Dr J Smith.'" She read aloud, although she might as well have been reading a foreign language, it was all gobbledegook to her.

Jack, however, had perked up at the words 'Can I see that?' he asked.

She obliged him, and Jack took the book, examining it. It was a glossy black hardcover, it's cover stamped in silver foil with spiralling symbols he guessed where Gallifreyan script. _Wait a sec…_ he remembered this! These were all the old fables of Time Lords—the legends of Gallifrey—his mother used to read to him at bedtime. Jack began rifling through the book. All the old favourites were here: Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday, Cinderella and the Magic Box, Frozen Beauty…classics.

'What is it?' Emma asked, unnerved by the silence.

'Something that shouldn't be here…' Jack muttered, a frown creasing his face. He handed it back to Henry and got up from his chair 'We'll take it with us. I need to check out that cabin again.'

He walked out in the department, the others following behind, before pivoting on his heel 'Oh. I'm going need the device you took from me when I came in. It was on my wrist?'

Emma knew what he was referring to. She hadn't thought much of it. She'd prodded it experimentally a few times, but it'd oddly bleeped at her. Nonetheless, she retrieved it from evidence lockup for him 'What is it?' she asked, handing it back to Jack.

'Vortex Manipulator,' he explained 'I used to use it to travel in time. Doesn't work now, but I can use it to scan for traces of temporal energy around the cabin, maybe pinpoint a source.'

'You…really travelled in time?' Henry asked, unable to conceal his excitement.

Jack turned to Henry 'You must be the author kid, right?' he smiled at him. 'Yeah, I've travelled in time. Space, too. But I can't do what you do. I mean, rewriting reality? I've only ever seen that once before…'

Henry looked at him quizzically 'Really, when?'

'Long story,' said Jack with a sigh 'Long time ago now.'

'Wait,' interrupted David 'Time travel?'

'Yeah,' Jack told him 'I used to work for an organisation called the Time Agency, then I…knocked around a bit, ended up working for Torchwood, an institute dedicated to defending Britain from alien threats.'

David and Snow looked to Emma. She nodded, confirming his story.

'That is so cool,' Henry said 'But…Britain? You _sound_ American.'

'Well,' said Jack with a wistful laugh 'I'm from a little further afield than Oklahoma.'

 _ **~Line Break~**_

They were at the cabin. Jack was crouched over the spot where the gate had been, scanning it intently, occasionally punching in commands on the device on his wrist, consulting the little display.

'You picking up anything?' Emma inquired.

'Just faint traces of temporal residue,' Jack admitted with a frustrated grimace 'But if I had to guess, the two gates are linked, so your husband's probably in Cardiff. With any luck, he's with my team…actually, that might not be lucky.'

Before she could ask what he meant, a huge _boom_ rippled through the skies above them. The glass in the windows shattered inwards, and everyone reflexively ducked an covered their faces.

'What the hell was that?!' David demanded.

'I don't know,' Emma admitted, her voice quiet.

A few seconds later, a deafening crash shook the ground, causing everyone to duck again.

 _ **~Line Break~**_

It hadn't taken them long to see the see the source of the impact. A huge, disk-shaped spaceship lay, lopsided, in a crater in the middle of the road, its lights and engines sputtering and dying weakly.

Several residents of the town were emerging from their homes, gaping and whispering to each other.

'The hell…?' Emma breathed to herself.

'I think…' Jack said 'Aliens have come to Storybrooke.'

Additional Author's Note: The Time Lord fairy-tales mentioned in this chapter are real stories you can read in a Doctor Who tie-in book called, unimaginatively in my opinion, _Time Lord Fairy Tales_. I thought, since this is a story about fairy tales and the Whoniverse, why not include them as an Easter egg? Next chapter, we catch up with Killy in Cardiff.


End file.
